As Laura and I will be married on April 17th, 2007, we are shutting down our blogs and combining them in a new website: http://naud.us . Quite a cleaver name if I say so myself

You can mosey over and check out Peter Naudus and Laura Naudus’ Personal Website or if you still want to read a blog you can check out the Blog for Peter Naudus and Laura Naudus.

Recently, I’ve started listening to audio Bibles in the morning as I get ready for class and then at night as I’m drifting off to sleep. The Bible says we should meditate as we rise up, walk along the way, and as we fall asleep, so I’m trying to do that.

I found the NIV Audio Bible Dramatized which looked like an awesome audio Bible. So, I scoured the Internet trying to find a place where I could purchase a mp3 version. Zondervan has an mp3 CD version but that’s not what I’m looking for. Since I’m currently in China anything involving shipping is a bad idea. Of course there where tons of places that I could download it via torrents, but I decided to be good and press on looking for a place to purchase it.

Finally, I saw that Audible was a incensed reseller of Zondervan material and had the audio Bible. It was normally $41.99, but Audible had a special deal where if you signed up for the Gold membership of $7.99/month you got one free audio book/month. So I plunked down my $7.99 and then used my one free audio book purchase to get the audio Bible.

With Audible, you can’t just download the audio books, you have to use their special downloader (which of course there is no Linux version). No problem, says I, WINE comes to the rescue!! After fighting with wine, I finally get the Audible downloader installed and happily add the first audio book. Problem #1 was that it was in an encrypted format that Linux couldn’t play. I could have used the Audible downloader to export to an mp3 or burn it to a virtual CD and then rip it, or try to find some kind of converter. But, there are like 4 books of the Bible per audio file, which is rather dumb. I like to listen to one chapter at a time, not 4 books of the Bible / time. I could have fired up Audacity and then cut the file into chapters … but that would have taken FOREVER.

So what did I do? I did what I was tempted to do in the first place: download them from bittorrent. Not only did they come in MP3 format, but also every chapter had its own mp3 file and they were nicely grouped together in folders by book of the Bible. Some people might frown at the “illegal” activity. However, I payed for the book, they make it impossibly complicated, I dumped them and did it my own way. It made me wonder, though… why I even bothered to give them money since I just wasted a lot of time and ended up just download it on bittorrent.

When will company’s learn DRM kills? Just let me use the data I bought, for crying out loud.

~Peter

Every break, we try to have a team day where the Chinese staff and theAmerican facilitators get together to hang out. This break, I was incharge of organizing the team day. First, we went into town for muttonsticks. Afterwards we had good ‘ol American-style ice cream Sundays.

Mmmm…. ice cream!

For quite a long time I’ve used TinyURL to take very long links and make them tiny.

However, some crazy guy decided to create something on the opposite extreme: the Freaking Huge URL Generator.

So, the link to my website (http://www.LinuxLefty.com) via TinyURL is:

http://tinyurl.com/cgt6ao

BUT, via the Freaking Huge URL Generator, it is:

http://www.freakinghugeurl.com/refer.php?count=12&url=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

I’m not sure why you would ever want to use it, but it IS a lot of fun, haha

1. See that I’m leaving the world better than I found it
2. Get married
3. See my kids making a difference in the world
4. Make a real, lasting difference in at least 50 people’s lives
5. visit Alaska and Europe